Galaxy Seeking a Carson Show
Welcome to Soccer City?
The Galaxy’s rather presumptuous 2000 marketing slogan would seem to be misplaced by about two years and 25 miles, if audacious plans to build a $60-million soccer complex in the city of Carson are realized.
On paper, it sounds like a little piece of nirvana for Southern California soccer fans: a 30,000-seat European-style soccer-specific home stadium for the Galaxy, sharing the premises with a 7,000-seat stadium that would serve as the hub of a permanent U.S. Soccer National Training Center.
The U.S. men’s and women’s national teams would play their home games there. International “friendly” matches would be held there. The NCAA soccer Final Four and amateur championship matches could be scheduled there.
It would become “the heart and soul of soccer in this country,” Galaxy President Tim Leiweke envisions.
It would transform Carson, heretofore known for its toxic waste dump and its ill-fated NFL “Hacienda,” into a glistening mecca of American soccer--which, any way you look at it, is an improvement over “Home of the Raiders.”
It would open the Galaxy to new fans and revenue streams, making weekenddrives to home games more accessible to fans in the affluent West Los Angeles, South Bay and Orange County areas.
And it would finally give the Galaxy a true home-field advantage--a substantial upgrade from its current status as a secondary tenant at the Rose Bowl, where the Galaxy recently opened its fifth season in front of 24,831 spectators, a decent-sized crowd, yet dwarfed by huge sections of unused seats and massive “downsizing” tarpaulins.
“Ultimately,” Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber says, “you’ve got one of the hottest soccer markets in this country which would have a home for soccer, a home for our [MLS] team and potentially a home for the [U.S. Soccer] training center. It would just be a huge boost.”
Plans for the complex, announced by the Galaxy on March 15, call for a 25,000- to 30,000-seat stadium in place in time for the 2002 MLS season. The national training center, a separate project, first requires approval from U.S. Soccer. The federation is accepting bids through April 30, with Los Angeles and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., considered the front-runners.
That is one of numerous hurdles confronting the Galaxy, Carson and Cal State Dominguez Hills, where the complex would be located. At the March 15 news conference, Leiweke outlined most of them.
“We must create a partnership with CSUDH that will show a major benefit to the students, the faculty and alumni of the university,” Leiweke said.
“We must receive help from the city of Carson and, in return, show an increase in the revenues we generate for the city and its businesses.
“We must submit a bid to [U.S. Soccer] by April 30, 2000, and win the bid.
“We must get the final approval from the Anschutz Corp. [which owns and operates the Galaxy] and Major League Soccer.
“We must increase the base of support for the L.A. Galaxy.”
In addition, because the plan involves state-owned land that can only be leased to a private entity, the proposal must be approved by the CSU board of trustees, a vote that would first require the completion of an environmental impact study. Such studies usually take four to eight months.
Also to be the contended with: the emotional issue of possibly razing the Olympic velodrome to raise a soccer facility. The velodrome, built specifically to host the 1984 Olympic cycling competition, has been earmarked in at least one proposal to be demolished to clear space for stadium parking.
Already, says Steve Meiche, executive director of the Southern California Velodrome Assn., speculation over the future of the velodrome “has really hurt our organization. The Galaxy contends they haven’t said, ‘The velodrome’s going under,’ but people have seen the newspaper articles. We’ve had sponsors pull out because they’re afraid the velodrome is going to be torn down next month. We sell memberships--$160 a year to use the track--and that has been hurt too. It has had a real detrimental effect.”
Meiche is hopeful a compromise can be struck whereby the complex would be built around the Velodrome. Or, at least, the scheduling of a meeting with Galaxy officials to discuss such a compromise.
“I haven’t been able to have any successful dialogue with the Galaxy, the university or the city,” Meiche says. “For some reason, they haven’t asked to sit down with us--or they don’t feel we’re a factor at all in the decision. It’s really disappointing.”
Another factor: an 89th-minute comeback by the Rose Bowl, hoping to rally from its current position as a fall-back option. Rose Bowl officials met with Sergio del Prado, Galaxy vice president of business operations, last week to examine ways of improving the stadium’s soccer setup and possibly extending the team’s Rose Bowl lease, which expires at the end of this season.
“I think the Rose Bowl remains a viable option as far as it’s where our fans are used to coming,” Del Prado says. “I don’t think we would move just to move. The only reason we would move is if we could have a better site.
“The Rose Bowl is going to look at a few things and maybe study if there is a way to downsize [seating capacity] in a manner other than just putting tarps over the seats and still be adequate for their needs, which is the Rose Bowl game and UCLA football.”
Among the ideas: lowering the Rose Bowl playing surface so seats could be built closer to the field, creating a more intimate setting for the fans, and adding a partial roof atop the stadium to help amplify the crowd noise.
Useful improvements, but, given their choice, the Galaxy would rather be in Carson by 2002.
“Everything being equal,” Del Prado says, “if we can get the right deal, yes, obviously [the preference would be to move].”
Galaxy coaches and players are already dizzy with the vision of playing in their own facility, with every seat filled, with no chalked hash marks running through the midfield, with no faded blue and gold U-C-L-A still visible around the goal mouth.
“I think it’s going to be huge,” Coach Sigi Schmid says. “I mean, you look at our opening-day crowd against Colorado. You put that in a 30,000-seat stadium and all of a sudden there’s a whole different atmosphere.
“It’s a statement that we’re here to stay, that we’re not going to go away. It creates a much better atmosphere. I just think it takes us from one level to another level.”
Midfielder Danny Pena calls the concept of a soccer-only complex for the Los Angeles area “long overdue. Obviously, having played in L.A. for a number of years and growing up in L.A., there’s never been a stadium that has been soccer-specific. And, I think, if you can build a soccer-specific stadium, as they say, people will come. I think [fan response] would be phenomenal. You could use it for a number of events. They’ve talked about the national team, the Olympic team. I think it’s huge for the game.”
Pena compares playing soccer on the Rose Bowl’s football field to “turning the Dodger Stadium outfield into a soccer field. I mean, that’s the way we look at it. It’s UCLA’s football field, but the Galaxy plays on it. People don’t respect that.
“So for us to finally have our own stadium in a couple of years, I think it’s going to have a huge impact. We’ll see. It’ll be interesting.”
With or without the national training center, Galaxy officials say they are intent on pushing ahead with the Carson stadium plan. But the preference is the multipurpose complex, which is why the Galaxy is using the U.S. Soccer-imposed April 30 deadline to develop at least a preliminary proposal with Cal State Dominguez Hills.
At this point, the Galaxy has a few architects’ sketches and a willing partner in Cal State Dominguez Hills. The university is in the process of hiring a professional negotiating firm and hopes to have one in place by early April.
“I think the next [five] weeks will be key,” Del Prado says. “That’s really where we need to make the decision and have one or the other [Carson or the Rose Bowl]. The deal doesn’t have to be done, but we should at least know enough about ‘This is where we’re going to be, this is what we want to do.’ ”
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* METROSTARTLED: Former Galaxy coach Zambrano is under fire one game into Major League Soccer’s new season. Page 13
House Hunting
The Galaxy, seeking a soccer-specific stadium with seating of about 30,000, is taking a strong look at a site at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and is also considering renovation plans for the Rose Bowl.
